Days before Ole Miss clashed with Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, standout defensive lineman Zxavian Harris was asked about Lane Kiffin’s chaotic departure from Ole Miss to LSU. He responded with fire.
“We are going to troll him,” Harris stated. “We got something for him. He was just trying to steal our shine. That’s all he tried to do. That’s all he’s been trying to do.”
Nearly nine months later, Harris exited a NFL training camp, hopped in the transfer portal after a successful lawsuit in Louisiana and joined Kiffin in Baton Rouge.
It’s all part of the Kiffin experience.
As college football faces its recent court-manufactured crisis — some might argue the NCAA’s rule implementation is to blame — the person at the center of the recent controversy is Kiffin.
To be clear, LSU wasn’t the first school to pursue this path of signing former professional players. Texas added fifth-year offensive lineman Cole Hutson, who had participated in NFL minicamps but wasn’t signed to a contract, following a lawsuit in Texas. A sweeping rule in Colorado also, for a time, allowed the class of 2022 players to return for a fifth year of eligibility. But that did not include former professional athletes.
That’s where LSU got creative.
Kiffin and the Tigers reached out to multiple players on NFL rosters or their representation in an effort to get them to bring a lawsuit against the NCAA and return to school, per sources. This includes some of the players who ended up in the Louisiana lawsuit, which sources have pointed out wasn’t tried in Baton Rouge by accident.
The Tigers have signed three former NFL players so far — Harris, former Ole Miss tight end Dae’quan Wright and former Notre Dame EDGE Junior Tuihalamaka — and have had conversations with others who remain in NFL camps ahead of the league’s cut day on Aug. 30.
LSU isn’t the only SEC program doing it. But the Tigers led the initial movement, which tipped over dominoes for other teams in the league.
“At the end of the day, through these injunctions, they’re going to play for you or play somewhere else around the country,” Kiffin stated. “So (shrugs) we made the decision to recruit them, like most people probably are.”
Wright was the first player on an active NFL roster to enter the portal. His deal with the Tigers was revealed by ESPN’s Adam Scheffter in the same post about him being cut from the Cleveland Browns.
Browns head coach Todd Monken caused a stir in college football last week when he stated at a press conference that Kiffin, who has since claimed he doesn’t know Monken, called him in the middle of camp.
“I wondered why Lane Kiffin reached out a week ago. Now I know,” Monken stated. “I didn’t call him back. I guess I should have.”
Kiffin on Monday repeated multiple times the Tigers aren’t the only team pursuing NFL players.
But some schools in the SEC have decided not to add former pro players, per sources. They don’t want to disrupt their locker rooms or cut a walk-on who helped the team all offseason.
Conferences are beginning to take a stand, too. The Big Ten was expected to vote Tuesday to prohibit its members from adding former NFL players, sources told CBS Sports. Yahoo has since revealed the ACC and Big 12 are considering a similar rule.
This puts the spotlight on the SEC entering a Tuesday’s presidents and chancellors meeting.
The SEC is in a difficult position with its membership moving so aggressively and hasn’t stated anything publicly about the NFL-to-college movement outside of a general statement on Monday evening that made no move to enforce any rules or corral its membership
Part of the league’s problem is several schools in the conference, including LSU, believe the language of the Louisiana court order allows schools to skirt the league’s intraconference transfer policy, which bans SEC-to-SEC movement outside a certain window for each sport.
The order from the judge in Louisiana states: “All persons acting in concert or participation with it, are hereby temporarily restrained and enjoined from prohibiting Plaintiffs from competing in NCAA Division I athletics during the 2026-27 season on the basis that Plaintiffs have signed a professional contract, or agent contract, or played in a professional sporting event, so long as they terminate any such contract or repay any money they have received prior to playing in a collegiate game.”
The lawyer for the plaintiffs in the Louisiana lawsuit, Ryan Downton, told CBS Sports over the weekend: “We believe the order should allow players to transfer within the conference, but have reached out to the SEC to discuss.”
Whether that proves accurate is to be determined, but LSU is certainly operating as if it will. One of the more interesting subplots is two of the players LSU has added thus far previously played for Kiffin at Ole Miss. While Harris was perhaps the most outspoken Ole Miss player against Kiffin in the aftermath of his exit for Baton Rouge, it was a different story for Wright.
Wright was one of the few Rebels players vocal to Ole Miss administrators about wanting Kiffin to continue coaching the team through the College Football Playoff, sources told CBS Sports. Wright was specifically worried about how losing Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. could impact his NFL Draft stock. Ole Miss didn’t allow Kiffin to coach but Weis Jr. did stick around for a playoff run that ended in a semifinal loss to Miami. Wright participated in the NFL combine but was not drafted and instead signed as a free agent with the Browns.
Wright has become the focal point of outrage over NFL players attempting to return to the college ranks. In his first public comments about his impending move, Wright told 13WMAZSports the blame should be more on the circumstances than the individuals.
“A lot of people want to put the blame on us athletes but it is also bad timing,” Wright stated. “The people who are giving us a fifth year it’s bad timing by them. If they were going to pass this they should have done it a long time ago. They should have done it earlier this year instead of letting people get to teams to where it is looking like ‘oh now you’re just leaving a team to go back to college.'”
Petre Thomas-Imagn
There may not be a school more all-in on trying to win than LSU. The Tigers have what multiple sources believe is the most expensive roster in college football this season, buoyed by high-profile additions such as Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt and Colorado offensive lineman Jordan Seaton. It doesn’t stop at football. On Monday, LSU scored a judicial win when a Louisiana judge granted RJ Luis Jr. a temporary injunction to play for Will Wade’s basketball program this season. Luis went undrafted in 2025 and signed multiple contracts with NBA teams, but never saw action in a regular-season game.
With a Louisiana governor who doesn’t mind inserting himself into college sports and a new university administration which seems to have a higher risk tolerance than others around the country, LSU isn’t afraid to be bold.
And naturally, Kiffin is at the center of it all.
“I wouldn’t like to be my boss that hired me and then come and say, ‘Hey, here’s these guys going around the country playing, making teams better. Why aren’t we recruiting them because we may end up playing against them?'” Kiffin stated. “That’s the way I’m thinking about it, and I don’t think that’s unique.”
